"Schumer’s allies, such as they exist, argue that Stevens will perform strongly with Black voters. My only question is 'Who told you this? And how white were they?'" Funny. Also: yuh-huh, it would seem so.
Not sure what to make of Michigan but hopefully they end up with someone who’s a good enough politician to pull together the whole coalition. McMorrow shouldn’t have too much trouble with the social media posts (bitching about weather is what we do in the north, too). My unsolicited advice to any Democrat though is to ignore your primary opponent and go right at attacking Republicans with such savage ferocity that voters will think “this person speaks to my own rage and I want them reading Republicans for filth in Washington.” Voters care much more about that than they do about policy, where Democrats are largely going to vote in bloc with their caucus.
Mills’ campaign was pitiful. The whole idea that some dumb tattoos (these were obscure Nazi tattoos, as in even Marines like Platner may not have even known the Nazi associations—not everyone devours WW2 history and can recognize a Deaths Head from an ordinary Skull and Crossbones) mean a guy is definitely a Nazi and can never atone or be given grace for a mistake is just a weak way to build a coalition. (Do we forgive Hillary for her support of Goldwater in the very election where he opposed the Civil Rights Act?) Mills would have done better to point out that this guy never held any office before and could turn out to be another Fetterman (a much more reasonable fear than that this oyster man, who is married to a Jewish woman, is secretly a Nazi). But even here, she should have just focused on hitting Collins so savagely that Mainers would have wanted her to be their nominee.
Excellent analysis as usual. Regarding the concern over Platner's tattoo(s), I suggest reflecting on the skull-and-crossbones logo of US Navy Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (VFA 103), informally known as the Jolly Rogers. Are there artistic differences between the SS death's head logo and the Jolly Rogers logo? Sure, but the typical somewhat inebriated 23 year old Marine and his colleagues might not have been considering the totality of the finer aesthetic points when they got those tattoos in Croatia...
My home state of South Carolina is on the Atlantic Coast. Are we part of the coastal elite or Middle America? Geographically, we are on the coast, but, politically, we are, sadly, closer to Middle America. And though it's a red state, there are blue cities, including my hometown of Spartanburg. I just want politicians who work for We the People, even the billionaires, but not just for them, and not for corporations, who aren't people no matter what that evil moron John Roberts says.
Old entrenched politicians seem horribly out of step with what Americans actually need and want. We need fresher more idealistic politicians. And I’m an old white person who wants more of a cross section of what Americans look like.
Let’s make a delicious stew and not some bland consommé.
So, "these days you don’t really have to keep your Nazi inclinations secret to advance politically." even in the Democratic party? I don't trust people who wear notsee tattoos for 13 years and only remove them once a reporter is going to blow the whistle on them. I also do not trust Blackwater operatives. Why do you?
I mean in the end if they both win Schumer ought to be happy.
But really if people are always going to be with their feet on Schumer's neck. then why the hell is nobody declaring NOW to run against him and build up their brand?
My suspicion is that the people with the profile in NYS need him to be a shield for them to make difficult decisions so they can protect the purity of their progressive brands. That's one reason online-maligned Hakeem Jeffries doesn't have a challenger promoted.
Because I will say this again; Democrats have already shown that they can dirt out any Democrats they really don't want in office. They easily hounded Joe Biden out of office, and made sure Kamala Harris was stopped (despite the pleas of...strangely enough...Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Biden got dogpiled by all kinds of randos we haven't heard from since the election except for...well, Mengele-without-a-medical degree!
So the silence of potential challengers speaks VERY loudly to me. Because when folks are like, "Oh the Dem leadership sucks" like it's some alien construct you can't remove I get just a weeeeee bit contemptuous.
Schumer is the worst Democrat minority leader in the history at least the living history of our country. Makes the worst calls, is a power point coward, is beholden to Israel. Schumer claims to represent workers but he is an out of touch upper crust upper New York millionaire. How fucking bad do you gotta be to have Mitch McConnell run rough shod over you? We need to put Pappy Schoom on some museum board seat where he can sip his rose and get happy. He hates this job. He has failed at his job. It would be a fucking disaster if we win in the midterms and capitulator Schoom is leading the Senate. No fucking way. I want a huge contest for leader of the Senate if we win. And it better not be Schumer.
Very interesting analysis of the Senatorial race in my home state of Michigan. As a progressive, of course I'll vote for any Democrat who wins the primary. But in the primary I'll be voting for El-Sayed, if only as a message to Schumer that there is room for real progressives in our big-tent party as well as Neanderthals like Fetterman. True, Michigan isn't Oregon, but I think it will swing blue as part of a nationwide trend this November. The determining factor will be turnout, and Michigan Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents are champing at the bit to cast their votes. If El-Sayed fails in his Senate race, I hope he'll run for the House in 2028.
McMorrow also takes AIPAC money. I'm rooting for El-Sayed. I guess we'll see if Platner really is a progressive or just another Fetterman. I have a feeling we are going to hear more about his Blackwater career once he wins the primary. Schumer should have been out of a job years ago, just based on his deference to an imaginary (republican) couple. He sucks and I'd love for AOC to take his job, except I'd rather she run for President.
The “Platner is Fetterman” hand wringing is getting a little tedious. Beyond the fact that they are two white guys running as Dems in purple states, they have little in common.
AOC has to be a senator before she can take Schumer’s job.
I think Fetterman (and Sinema before him) have justifiably spooked us and now we are all wondering what the hell is wrong with our vetting. Hopefully Platner wins and hopefully he won’t Fetterman out on us.
To be fair, Sinema was pretty much as advertised-another Schumer hard recruit because she was moderate and “electable”. Fetterman, who knows, but the stroke really does seem to have changed him.
Platner won’t be a fall in line type but he also won’t be a Fetterman.
I don’t think she became so reviled because she was moderate—people didn’t drive out Klobuchar or Kaine—her problem was she kept undermining her party over dumb BS like the filibuster and stopped showing up for her constituents or her caucus work. It wasn’t like she was making stands n substantive policy disagreements, these were matters of procedure in the name of bipartisan bullshit. And she’d given no sign of this before 2020 (after she was already in the Senate).
Fetterman had been a normal LtG and ran as a normie loyal Democrat, then decided to be a total bag of shit. Not just his policy disagreements but constantly feeding Fox News with pro-Trump messaging.
I really don’t see how even the negative shit that was out about both of them pre-2020 and pre-2024 (respectively) would have warned us about that.
I'm really hesitant to associate a stroke with his shitty behavior, since that veers really close to eugenics in a way that I'm not comfortable with.
As for platner, the guy dropped the R-word like last month. On top of the Nazi tattoo. On top of working for blackwater. He has all the makings of a Fetterman.
In many ways she did, though. She’d been a moderate representative for about three terms, and was a pretty normal moderate her first 2 years in the Senate. It was only after Dems took the Senate in 2020 that she decided to kneecap her party repeatedly.
Yes, I get that. But beyond white guy Fetterman doing that after a big stroke, there is no storied history of other white-guys-running-as-progressives doing that, and certainly no indication that white guy-running-as-economic-populist Platner will do the same. It’s a little odd people claim he will, considering there are lots of white guy progressives running out there-Matt Dunlap here in Maine to name just one-and no one seems to be saying that about them.
I would go out on a limb and say that Matt Dunlap has neither a nazi tattoo or a Blackwater work history. Not to mention troublesome reddit posts. That is what makes me very wary of Platner. He’s very conservative coded.
Well, with all due respect, spend some time in the state, go to his town halls, read his platform. Spend less time digesting out of state sour grape opinion pieces. He is probably a less reliable D vote than Mills would be but what is the point of recruiting different and interesting candidates if we’re just expecting them to be Stepford Wives once they get in office? Frankly, I see Platner more as a left wing Rand Paul than John Fetterman.
And I would also think we as Democrats should get used to a lot more candidates that don’t actnor talk like either AOC or Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jefferies winning primaries and then general elections. If we want younger people running, well, they grew up with social media and posting every thought and there are going to be a lot of people with that baggage showing up as candidates. Time’s are a-changing, and people’s ideas of who a candidate should be are too.
Schumer made a mistake in pressuring Mills to run, and Mills made a mistake in accepting a race in which she had no real interest or, at this point, constituency. I appreciate that she has kept the MAGA wolf at bay here, but no one in Maine (beyond the few long in the tooth and generally female Dem operatives who were running "Platner Loves Rape" ads here for a while) has much interest in seeing her in Washington. It's time to go back to Farmington and play with her grandchildren, which is all she wants to do anyway.
But he might have been correct with backing Haley Stevens, at least in terms of who can win the race. I am obviously not in Michigan and thus not as attuned to the politics there, but it really seems El-Sayed's winning the nomination turns a toss up election into lean Republican, the opposite of what you would hope. And McMorrow *does* give off a whiff of condescension, a problem for a lot of lefties in less-than-progressive places. I am actually more optimistic about keeping Michigan a blue seat than I am my own state will turn out Susan Collins, who just keeps rising.
Schumer, the Bailey's stooge needs to get the fuck out of A0C's seat forthwith....
"Schumer’s allies, such as they exist, argue that Stevens will perform strongly with Black voters. My only question is 'Who told you this? And how white were they?'" Funny. Also: yuh-huh, it would seem so.
Not sure what to make of Michigan but hopefully they end up with someone who’s a good enough politician to pull together the whole coalition. McMorrow shouldn’t have too much trouble with the social media posts (bitching about weather is what we do in the north, too). My unsolicited advice to any Democrat though is to ignore your primary opponent and go right at attacking Republicans with such savage ferocity that voters will think “this person speaks to my own rage and I want them reading Republicans for filth in Washington.” Voters care much more about that than they do about policy, where Democrats are largely going to vote in bloc with their caucus.
Mills’ campaign was pitiful. The whole idea that some dumb tattoos (these were obscure Nazi tattoos, as in even Marines like Platner may not have even known the Nazi associations—not everyone devours WW2 history and can recognize a Deaths Head from an ordinary Skull and Crossbones) mean a guy is definitely a Nazi and can never atone or be given grace for a mistake is just a weak way to build a coalition. (Do we forgive Hillary for her support of Goldwater in the very election where he opposed the Civil Rights Act?) Mills would have done better to point out that this guy never held any office before and could turn out to be another Fetterman (a much more reasonable fear than that this oyster man, who is married to a Jewish woman, is secretly a Nazi). But even here, she should have just focused on hitting Collins so savagely that Mainers would have wanted her to be their nominee.
That wasn't going to happen. Take it from a Mainer.
Excellent analysis as usual. Regarding the concern over Platner's tattoo(s), I suggest reflecting on the skull-and-crossbones logo of US Navy Strike Fighter Squadron 103 (VFA 103), informally known as the Jolly Rogers. Are there artistic differences between the SS death's head logo and the Jolly Rogers logo? Sure, but the typical somewhat inebriated 23 year old Marine and his colleagues might not have been considering the totality of the finer aesthetic points when they got those tattoos in Croatia...
I devour WW2 history and can say that the deaths head symbol is pretty obscure to most people, even WW2 buffs.
It's a popular tattoo among the Nazi set. “Obscure” is pushing it.
Nah, it's pretty obscure.
“Popular among the Nazi set” does not mean it’s not obscure among the vast majority of people who are not Nazis.
My home state of South Carolina is on the Atlantic Coast. Are we part of the coastal elite or Middle America? Geographically, we are on the coast, but, politically, we are, sadly, closer to Middle America. And though it's a red state, there are blue cities, including my hometown of Spartanburg. I just want politicians who work for We the People, even the billionaires, but not just for them, and not for corporations, who aren't people no matter what that evil moron John Roberts says.
Old entrenched politicians seem horribly out of step with what Americans actually need and want. We need fresher more idealistic politicians. And I’m an old white person who wants more of a cross section of what Americans look like.
Let’s make a delicious stew and not some bland consommé.
So, "these days you don’t really have to keep your Nazi inclinations secret to advance politically." even in the Democratic party? I don't trust people who wear notsee tattoos for 13 years and only remove them once a reporter is going to blow the whistle on them. I also do not trust Blackwater operatives. Why do you?
I mean in the end if they both win Schumer ought to be happy.
But really if people are always going to be with their feet on Schumer's neck. then why the hell is nobody declaring NOW to run against him and build up their brand?
My suspicion is that the people with the profile in NYS need him to be a shield for them to make difficult decisions so they can protect the purity of their progressive brands. That's one reason online-maligned Hakeem Jeffries doesn't have a challenger promoted.
Because I will say this again; Democrats have already shown that they can dirt out any Democrats they really don't want in office. They easily hounded Joe Biden out of office, and made sure Kamala Harris was stopped (despite the pleas of...strangely enough...Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Biden got dogpiled by all kinds of randos we haven't heard from since the election except for...well, Mengele-without-a-medical degree!
So the silence of potential challengers speaks VERY loudly to me. Because when folks are like, "Oh the Dem leadership sucks" like it's some alien construct you can't remove I get just a weeeeee bit contemptuous.
Schumer is the worst Democrat minority leader in the history at least the living history of our country. Makes the worst calls, is a power point coward, is beholden to Israel. Schumer claims to represent workers but he is an out of touch upper crust upper New York millionaire. How fucking bad do you gotta be to have Mitch McConnell run rough shod over you? We need to put Pappy Schoom on some museum board seat where he can sip his rose and get happy. He hates this job. He has failed at his job. It would be a fucking disaster if we win in the midterms and capitulator Schoom is leading the Senate. No fucking way. I want a huge contest for leader of the Senate if we win. And it better not be Schumer.
Very interesting analysis of the Senatorial race in my home state of Michigan. As a progressive, of course I'll vote for any Democrat who wins the primary. But in the primary I'll be voting for El-Sayed, if only as a message to Schumer that there is room for real progressives in our big-tent party as well as Neanderthals like Fetterman. True, Michigan isn't Oregon, but I think it will swing blue as part of a nationwide trend this November. The determining factor will be turnout, and Michigan Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents are champing at the bit to cast their votes. If El-Sayed fails in his Senate race, I hope he'll run for the House in 2028.
I think he’s likely to be a more successful House than Senate candidate myself. We’ll see.
Too little, too late, Chuck. Time to dump the Vichy Dems.
McMorrow also takes AIPAC money. I'm rooting for El-Sayed. I guess we'll see if Platner really is a progressive or just another Fetterman. I have a feeling we are going to hear more about his Blackwater career once he wins the primary. Schumer should have been out of a job years ago, just based on his deference to an imaginary (republican) couple. He sucks and I'd love for AOC to take his job, except I'd rather she run for President.
The “Platner is Fetterman” hand wringing is getting a little tedious. Beyond the fact that they are two white guys running as Dems in purple states, they have little in common.
AOC has to be a senator before she can take Schumer’s job.
She needs to take his seat.
I think Fetterman (and Sinema before him) have justifiably spooked us and now we are all wondering what the hell is wrong with our vetting. Hopefully Platner wins and hopefully he won’t Fetterman out on us.
To be fair, Sinema was pretty much as advertised-another Schumer hard recruit because she was moderate and “electable”. Fetterman, who knows, but the stroke really does seem to have changed him.
Platner won’t be a fall in line type but he also won’t be a Fetterman.
I don’t think she became so reviled because she was moderate—people didn’t drive out Klobuchar or Kaine—her problem was she kept undermining her party over dumb BS like the filibuster and stopped showing up for her constituents or her caucus work. It wasn’t like she was making stands n substantive policy disagreements, these were matters of procedure in the name of bipartisan bullshit. And she’d given no sign of this before 2020 (after she was already in the Senate).
Fetterman had been a normal LtG and ran as a normie loyal Democrat, then decided to be a total bag of shit. Not just his policy disagreements but constantly feeding Fox News with pro-Trump messaging.
I really don’t see how even the negative shit that was out about both of them pre-2020 and pre-2024 (respectively) would have warned us about that.
She had a lot more power to throw sand in the gears as a senator than as a House member. I honestly don’t know what she thought was going to happen.
I'm really hesitant to associate a stroke with his shitty behavior, since that veers really close to eugenics in a way that I'm not comfortable with.
As for platner, the guy dropped the R-word like last month. On top of the Nazi tattoo. On top of working for blackwater. He has all the makings of a Fetterman.
Sure
Fetterman had been a Democratic mayor and lt gov. It really wasn’t like he came out of nowhere.
Yes but the point is, Sinema didn’t magically change her persona aftet winning the election.
In many ways she did, though. She’d been a moderate representative for about three terms, and was a pretty normal moderate her first 2 years in the Senate. It was only after Dems took the Senate in 2020 that she decided to kneecap her party repeatedly.
I was referring to Fetterman as in "running as a progressive, governing as a republican", which, again, we will see.
AOC running for NY senate was what I was saying, not Senate Minority (hopefully Majority by 2027) leader. Nevermind, he's not up until 2029.
Yes, I get that. But beyond white guy Fetterman doing that after a big stroke, there is no storied history of other white-guys-running-as-progressives doing that, and certainly no indication that white guy-running-as-economic-populist Platner will do the same. It’s a little odd people claim he will, considering there are lots of white guy progressives running out there-Matt Dunlap here in Maine to name just one-and no one seems to be saying that about them.
I would go out on a limb and say that Matt Dunlap has neither a nazi tattoo or a Blackwater work history. Not to mention troublesome reddit posts. That is what makes me very wary of Platner. He’s very conservative coded.
Well, with all due respect, spend some time in the state, go to his town halls, read his platform. Spend less time digesting out of state sour grape opinion pieces. He is probably a less reliable D vote than Mills would be but what is the point of recruiting different and interesting candidates if we’re just expecting them to be Stepford Wives once they get in office? Frankly, I see Platner more as a left wing Rand Paul than John Fetterman.
And I would also think we as Democrats should get used to a lot more candidates that don’t actnor talk like either AOC or Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jefferies winning primaries and then general elections. If we want younger people running, well, they grew up with social media and posting every thought and there are going to be a lot of people with that baggage showing up as candidates. Time’s are a-changing, and people’s ideas of who a candidate should be are too.
With all due respect, I have not read "sour grapes" pieces. He lost me at nazi tattoo/blackwater, I really don't care what he has to say.
Schumer made a mistake in pressuring Mills to run, and Mills made a mistake in accepting a race in which she had no real interest or, at this point, constituency. I appreciate that she has kept the MAGA wolf at bay here, but no one in Maine (beyond the few long in the tooth and generally female Dem operatives who were running "Platner Loves Rape" ads here for a while) has much interest in seeing her in Washington. It's time to go back to Farmington and play with her grandchildren, which is all she wants to do anyway.
But he might have been correct with backing Haley Stevens, at least in terms of who can win the race. I am obviously not in Michigan and thus not as attuned to the politics there, but it really seems El-Sayed's winning the nomination turns a toss up election into lean Republican, the opposite of what you would hope. And McMorrow *does* give off a whiff of condescension, a problem for a lot of lefties in less-than-progressive places. I am actually more optimistic about keeping Michigan a blue seat than I am my own state will turn out Susan Collins, who just keeps rising.